


- incipit - begin here -

by otter



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-14
Updated: 2011-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-22 15:09:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/239390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otter/pseuds/otter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney didn't say anything. Possibly he had nothing to say -- though since this was *Rodney*, that was fairly unlikely -- or else he'd passed out entirely, or possibly he was dead. Radek thought those last two options were kind of appealing, too; he tipped his head back against the wall, closed his eyes and sank like a stone dropping into a well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	- incipit - begin here -

There was a pair of boots sticking out of one of the stalls. Radek found this intrusion more than a little irritating, since he'd retreated to this slightly out-of-the-way public bathroom in the hopes that he'd be able to puke his lungs out and then die in peace.

He considered telling whoever it was to leave, because he was about to expire without any dignity whatsoever, and he didn't really want witnesses. But instead he said, "Hello? Are you alright?"

One of the boots twitched a little. The person in the stall said, "Ungh?"

Radek considered two possibilities: either zombies had invaded Atlantis -- not entirely unlikely, considering what their luck had been like lately -- or that was Rodney in there, suffering like Radek was.

Radek would've checked to see if he was alright, but if Rodney felt anything like Radek did, then he wasn't alright at all. So Radek shuffled into the next stall instead, dropped to his knees in front of the very aesthetically pleasing Ancient toilet, and retched for all he was worth. Next door, Rodney groaned and was sick again, too. When Radek was finished losing a lunch he hadn't even had time to eat, he let himself drop to the floor, leaning against the curvy wall and letting his boots stick out, too.

"Rodney," he said, "You are not zombie, yes?"

Rodney said, "Guh?"

"Nevermind," Radek said. He scooped a handful of cool salty water from the wall above the toilet; the water flowed there constantly, which made using the bathrooms feel like peeing in a public fountain. He pressed the wet hand to his forehead, and was disappointed that it didn't really help much. "I have not felt like this since last after-exam bender," he said.

Rodney grunted his agreement, then said, "I think my heart's beating too fast." Radek could hear Rodney's breaths panting out of him, and Rodney's voice was raw, just like his throat probably was.

"You want me to call Beckett?" Radek said. He wasn't sure he could actually lift a hand to turn on his radio, but he figured it was only polite to offer.

"No," Rodney said. "Just let me die. Tell Elizabeth I fought bravely 'til the end."

Radek could've joked back, but he was feeling uncommonly sentimental. If building nuclear weapons together wasn't a bonding experience, then throwing up together certainly must be. "You have, Rodney," he said. "You have."

Rodney snorted; the sound didn't echo at all, which was kind of weird for a bathroom. "Sap," he muttered.

"Yes," Radek said. "I am allowed to be sap, in last moments of life."

Rodney didn't say anything. Possibly he had nothing to say -- though since this was *Rodney*, that was fairly unlikely -- or else he'd passed out entirely, or possibly he was dead. Radek thought those last two options were kind of appealing, too; he tipped his head back against the wall, closed his eyes and sank like a stone dropping into a well.

Everything was dark and quiet for a bare moment, and all Radek could hear was his blood rushing through his ears and running water somewhere, and then there was a hand on his chest, and his heart was beating faster, and the Wraith was sucking the life right out of him.

Radek was shouting and his arms were waving before he was really even awake, but the hand on his chest was still there, pressing down harder now against his flailing.

Rodney said, "Jesus, Radek, it's just me," and when Radek opened his eyes Rodney was there, crouched over him in an alien bathroom stall, one hand on Radek's chest and the other trying to fend off Radek's flailing limbs.

Radek went limp, slumped back against the wall, blinked and said, "Oh. Hello."

"Sorry," Rodney said. He eased up the pressure on Radek's chest, but didn't move his hand; he seemed to be using Radek was a crutch in an effort to stay upright. "You weren't moving and I thought--" He cut himself off abruptly and his face wrinkled up like it did when people were being particularly perplexing. "I thought you were probably trying to duck out on getting back to work by pretending to be dead."

"Yes," Radek said. "Is my plan all along." He wiggled his feet a little, just to make sure they were still attached, because his head certainly didn't feel like it was.

"Your heart's a little fast, too," Rodney said. He was staring at Radek's chest and frowning.

"Yes," Radek said. He tried not to think about his voice sounding breathless, because surely there was a more manly word for it. Winded, maybe.

He thought that maybe the amphetamines weren't to blame for the speed of his pulse; the Ancients didn't build their bathrooms stalls all that large, and Rodney was practically on top of him. He did blame the amphetamines, though, for the crazy urge to grab Rodney's head and pull him down for a kiss. He thought about it very seriously, and hoped that Rodney didn't notice how Radek was staring at his lips.

He might've done it, too, because it was awfully serendipitous: Rodney so close, and the drugs as a handy excuse if it all went to hell. But Radek's mouth tasted terrible, and he was willing to bet that Rodney's tasted even worse, so instead he patted the hand that was still braced against his chest, and didn't say anything.

Rodney was still frowning that intense-concentration frown, and he shifted his weight, twisted and sat so he was wedged in next to Radek, their shoulders pressed together and their elbows getting in the way while Rodney tried to find a comfortable position.

"Stop squirming," Radek said. Rodney was twitching his foot over and over, and it was making the toes of their boots tap together.

"We should probably get back out there," Rodney said. He was staring at the wall and his foot was still wiggling like it was engaged in a hopeless struggle for independence.

"Yes," Radek said, "they probably need our help to clean up the city, put out fires, come up with more brilliant plans to save the day."

Rodney was quite for a moment, and then he said, "Yeah, you're right. Colonel Whatsisname can handle it. They'll call us if they really need us, right? Right."

Radek murmured his agreement, closed his eyes, and fell back down the well.

+++

When Radek woke up again, Rodney's head was on his shoulder -- it looked very uncomfortable, considering Rodney was taller -- and he was drooling on Radek's shirt. He'd twisted a bit in his sleep, and his breath was puffing out against Radek's face.

Radek's mouth tasted like a dumpster-diving disease-ridden cat had crawled in there while he was sleeping, and Rodney's breath smelled about the same. Radek made a face and lifted one hand to carefully turn Rodney's head slightly away.

"Next time Wraith come," he said, mostly to himself, "I will tell Weir I have found secret weapon."

Rodney stirred and said, "Huh?" He turned his face back again, and Radek pushed it away again with a little smile.

"I said, we should get up, go to bed," Radek said. "Sleeping on floor of Ancient bathroom is not my idea of good time."

"Oh," Rodney muttered, in a way that made it clear that he hadn't heard any of that. He was already falling asleep again.

Radek wiggled his elbow, poked Rodney sharply in the ribs and said, "Up, Rodney. We go to bed."

Rodney groaned, but allowed himself to be pulled up. They stood in careful stages, climbing to their hands and knees first, then just the knees, then using the stall walls and each other's shoulders to pull themselves laboriously to their feet. They both swayed, and had to stand still while the room tilted, but eventually they found their way to the long fountainy-type trough which everyone had agreed to assume was a sink. Radek rinsed his mouth ten times or so, and his mouth tasted about ten thousand times better. Rodney dunked his entire head into the trough and held it under for so long that Radek was a little concerned he might've fallen asleep again. When Rodney did finally come up for air, he splashed water everywhere and still looked like shit.

Radek gave him a bit of a nudge toward the door and said, "Come on. I know sneaky way to transporter; no one will see us."

Rodney nodded and kept dripping on the floor. When they walked out of the bathroom -- stealthily, always pausing to look both ways for anybody who might want to give them work to do -- they leaned against each other, and Radek had to wrap one hand around Rodney's back to keep him upright. They made it to Radek's quarters unmolested -- well, Radek did, but it was possible that he'd accidentally touched Rodney's ass while trying to keep him moving -- and stumbled inside together.

His room looked exactly as he'd left it the last time he'd been there, which wasn't this morning, or even the morning before that, but sometime within the last week. The bed was still made, though not particularly neatly, and that very tall sheaf of paperwork on the desk was still exactly where he'd left it, perched on the edge and leaning precariously, like a jumper threatening to end it all. It seemed wrong, like his room shouldn't even be there, like it should be choked with smoke and burning like the rest of Atlantis.

Rodney staggered out from under Radek's hand and shuffled toward the bed.

"No, no," Radek said, hustling after him. "This is *my* room."

Rodney said, "So?" and flopped face-down on top of the covers.

"So, you have your own room," Radek pointed out. "And your own bed. Which you should go to. Now. Go away."

Rodney said, "Comfortable," and it came out sort of like, "Mmmphmrmphle," because his face was buried in Radek's pillow.

"Your room is only two doors away," Radek said. "I'm sure you can make it there." He kicked the bottom of Rodney's boot. "Go now."

Rodney didn't move, except to flop out one hand and fondle the blankets. "Mmmm," he said. "Soft."

Radek stared for what seemed like a very long time, but probably wasn't. Rodney made a happy little sighing noise.

"Alright," Radek finally said. "We share. Good?"

The noise from the bed might've been agreement.

"So you know," Radek said, "I sleep naked." He pulled his shirt over his head then struggled out of his boots.

Rodney's eye -- the one that wasn't hidden in the pillow -- popped open and kind of rolled around to look at him. "You do not."

Radek bristled. "I do," he said. He dropped his pants and kicked them off just to make a point, but then he felt kind of stupid, standing there in just his boxers and socks. The situation was starting to feel a lot like those dreams he used to have where he showed up to teach freshman physics classes without any clothes on.

Rodney's eye blinked at him and kept watching, half-lidded. "You do *not*," Rodney insisted, very sleepily. The eye drooped shut. If Rodney fell asleep again, Radek would never be able to shift him.

"You ask for it," Radek said, with a nice healthy dose of righteous indignation and extreme irritation. He dropped his boxers and kicked them aside too, and then he was standing there, naked except for the socks, and that *really* made him feel like an idiot, so he bent over long enough to pull them off, too.

Rodney's eye was cracked open, looking at Radek. He muttered, "You're such a liar," and the eye closed again.

Radek scowled, resisted the urge to cover himself, turned off the light, and stretched out next to Rodney, taking up as much room as possible in an effort to be annoying.

Nobody was as annoying as Rodney, of course. But Radek could try.

He could hear Rodney breathing next to him, slow and steady, and then Rodney said, "'Night, Radek," and dropped away into sleep.

Radek scowled a little deeper, considered options such as getting up and putting his clothes back on -- no, that would never work, Rodney would laugh at him forever -- or maybe hitting Rodney very hard over the head and then calling a medical team to take him away. He was still pondering his options when the exhaustion pulled him down.

+++

At first he thought that Rodney's head was on his shoulder again, but then he realized that Rodney was sort of poised above him, and Rodney's chin was resting in the dip of his shoulder. Rodney was whispering, "Radek. Radek, wake up."

Radek said, "What?" and that was when Rodney kissed him. In the dark, he missed a little and his lips landed just left of Radek's mouth, but he tried again and hit the mark this time and dived right in, with his tongue sweeping rather boldly into Radek's gaping mouth.

When it was over, he pulled back just long enough to let them both breathe, and maybe give Radek a chance to disagree with the whole idea, but then he applied himself to Radek's neck, licking and sucking and kissing the skin just under the jaw, where Radek's five o'clock shadow was just beginning to get really itchy.

Radek said, "What are you--" but he didn't finish the thought, because Rodney nipped his collarbone, and then Rodney wrapped his fingers around Radek's cock.

When he started stroking and fondling and doing all sorts of wonderful things that Radek usually had to do himself, Radek got to thinking that this was probably just a very strange dream brought on by days of high-stress work, mind-numbing terror, and one too many industrial-strength uppers.

Of course, in his dreams -- if he'd had dreams about Rodney fondling him, which honestly he really hadn't -- he doubted that Rodney would've been struggling with his own clothes and saying, "Fuck, fuck, fuck," when he couldn't get his shirt off.

Radek took advantage of this short reprieve, since his brain could work again with Rodney's hands otherwise engaged, to say, "What is happening?" He felt kind of floaty, which could've been from the extreme exhaustion or could've been from the way his body was trembling and twitching and waiting for Rodney to touch it again.

"We're fucking," Rodney explained, very patiently and clearly in good mood now that he'd won the war against his shirt.

Radek said, "Oh," and since Rodney had been kind enough to get his own pants open, if not entirely off, Radek put a hand in there and got with the program.

Rodney said, "Oh," too but with an entirely different inflection, which might've been interesting to a linguist, but wasn't particularly noteworthy to Radek. He was more interested in the weight in his hand, and the way Rodney's cheek scraped across his jaw. Rodney said, "Oh, *fuck*," and he tried to get closer, while his hand was wrapping around Radek's cock again and pulling, tugging, stroking with a certain lack of finesse, which he made up for in enthusiasm.

Radek didn't hear any choirs of angels when he came, and there were no figurative fireworks, but there was a loud rushing in his ears, as if the ocean had swallowed Atlantis again and he was sinking fast to the bottom of the sea. He really thought about passing out, because sleep had been a fantasy of his for days, but it hardly seemed polite to do so when he'd just been treated in such a way.

He opened his eyes, and Rodney was still there beside him, with his pants only half-way down his legs, sweat on his face, eyes closed and breath panting from his mouth. He still looked like shit, but in a kind of endearing way.

Radek kissed his mouth and said, "Go to sleep."

Rodney, who obviously had never been terribly concerned with being polite, dropped off to dreamland without a second thought. Radek got up long enough to clean them both up a bit and finish pulling off Rodney's pants. When he was done, he stood beside the bed for a minute, staring at his own discarded boxers and thinking about putting them on. In the end, he climbed back into bed naked, rolled onto his side, and settled in to rest.

He didn't actually sleep naked, but he figured all that was a pretty good reason to start.

the end


End file.
